What is Greatness?

Isaiah 9:7

Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

As Alexander the Great lay dying at age 33, he was asked to whom he would leave his kingdom. "To the strongest," he replied.

Those words unleashed two centuries of brutal warfare across the world.

When another young man prepared to die on a Greek-imported instrument of execution called 'the cross,' he answered such questions by saying, "My Kingdom is not of this world. If it were...my servants would fight." 

By his voluntary death, Christ unleashed a movement of faith, hope, and love, of light and mercy, into a world darkened by death and despair. He fought for us rather than sending us to fight for him. 

While the Christian life is a fight on many levels, it is not a fight to bring the kingdom through human power, a challenge that would summon the strong. No, the crucified King who was never called 'Great' has made the humility of a child, the lowliness of service, the vulnerability of weakness and the shame of the foolish, the characteristics of his peaceful kingdom's faithful advance.

This kingdom will not be given to the strong who fight but the humble who cry out for mercy.

Yes, there have been 'Greats' - Alexander, Catherine, Peter... but you will search in vain for any reference anywhere to 'Jesus the Great', and the reason this is so is evident: he defined kingdom and greatness in terms utterly upside-down from the way a merely human ruler would.

So the next time you meet a believer angrily fighting someone, remember, Jesus is NOT Great, but he IS LORD. He will do the fighting. "And of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end" (Isaiah 9). Tell them to put their sword away and then pray for the healing of the people their reckless defense of Jesus has wounded.